Soul for sale, slightly used

The Wall Street Journal's editorial captures the essence of the Blagojevich scandal:

The list of crooked politicians is long, and the list of stupid politicians even longer. But if the criminal allegations made yesterday against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich are proven in court, rarely will a politician have combined the two qualities with such efflorescence.

The second-term Democrat knew that a grand jury probe was under way into corruption in Illinois politics, and that one of his fund raisers, Tony Rezko, had been convicted and is cooperating with prosecutors. Yet according to those prosecutors, Mr. Blagojevich talked openly in recent weeks about selling a U.S. Senate seat, trading government favors for campaign cash, and punishing the owner of the Chicago Tribune if it didn't fire members of the newspaper's editorial board.

It's the sheer stupidity that's breathtaking. These people must so isolate themselves from real life and have such a heroic vision of themselves that they truly believe the rules don't apply to them. He knew he was being taped -- he was even taped telling someone to be careful because the whole world was listening -- and yet said things like: "I've got this thing [the power to appoint Barack Obama's Senate replacement] and it's [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing." It's surprising he didn't put the damn seat on eBay.